Bar coding has become an integral part of routine commercial transaction since it was introduced in the seventies because the system allows users to process detailed information at the moment the bar code is read rather than simply storing information for later processing. Further, bar codes are visible, typically printed directly on an object or on labels that are affixed to the object. Bar code and bar code patterns are used interchangeably herein. One dimensional and sometimes, two dimensional bar codes are now used to track a vast range of information on products and services.
The bar coding technology has become reliable and mature. However, despite its technological advancement, present one dimensional bar codes are only capable of representing single byte character sets such as the English alphabet and the Arabic numbers because current bar code systems are not capable of unambiguously encoding the full 256 (2.sup.8) bar code patterns. For example, code system Code 128 encodes only 106 complete characters in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) 8-bit format. A bar code system is a fixed definition of the mapping between a bar pattern and its corresponding numerical value, herein referred to as decimal. Currently, 128 ASCII characters have been found to be sufficient in encoding the English alphabet, usual punctuation, special characters and the Arabic numbers, however, this is not enough to encode other character sets such as the foreign language characters, which are multi-byte rather than single byte. This need to encode and represent foreign character sets are currently addressed by using a two dimensional bar code which are, however, not readable with most conventional bar code readers because these read only one dimensional bar code patterns. Conventional one dimensional bar code patterns typically comprise of a series of bars and spaces, referred collectively herein as images, the combination of these representing strings of binary ones and zeros. These patterns which are translated in machine readable language are used for entering data into a computer system for processing.
A bar code system implementation usually has a Bar Code Generator and a Bar Code Reader. A user inputs the data and a program within the Bar Code Generator sends and designates the bar code system for encoding the data to the appropriate encoder. Data as used herein encompass a full range of letters, English and Foreign, numbers, words, text, and symbol items one may desire to communicate. The encoder converts the data to a bar code and sends this to a generator which generates the black and white bar images or pattern for the bar code printer. Physically, the Bar Code Generator is usually made up of a computer and a printer. Depending on one's system configuration, the encoder and generator may be incorporated with the bar code printer or with the computer system. The generated bar code patterns are detected or read by a Bar Code Reader which comprise a scanner and a decoder. Examples of Bar Code Readers are scanning laser beams or handheld wands which electro-optically decode the bar code pattern to its corresponding decimal which by the use of a look up table, correlates this to a given character value, herein referred to as assigned value having an assigned function, resulting in a decoder output signal representative of the originally inputted data.
It is an object of this invention to provide a bar code system that can generate one dimensional bar code patterns for encoding both a single byte and a multi-byte character set.
It is an object of this invention to provide one dimensional bar code patterns for encoding multi-byte character sets such as the foreign language characters.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a method for decoding bar patterns representing multi-byte characters using conventional one dimensional bar code readers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a bar code generator utilizing a bar code system capable of encoding multi-byte characters.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a method for using conventional one dimensional bar code reader for decoding bar code patterns generated by base numbers greater than two.